Chapter 5

By now I wondered what the hold up was. I didn't have a clue how they buried their dead, so I didn't know what came now. Whatever it was I didn't think I should be the one to make the next move. Most people are a little somber when their relatives are getting a send off and the two of them damned sure looked somber.

I'd already stood around as long as I wanted to, but wasn't about to offend my new acquaintances so I kept still and tried to look somber too. I guess we'd still be there if some others hadn't come along.

The man who'd been with Jorka earlier returned with twelve more people - five men and seven women. The oldest woman was carrying some sort of animal skin bag.

She rushed up to the dead boy and looked to me as if she was checking to make sure he was dead. After her examination she closed his eyelids and when they didn't stay closed she did it again and put a small pebble on each one to keep them closed.

When she stood up and backed off the oldest man of the bunch went to stand near the body's head and started talking to all of us. For an old guy he still had a good voice. To me he looked like he was over seventy, but his firm voice sounded like a preacher's. He must be what they had for a holy man. The thought made me realize the woman must have been their healer or doctor or whatever they called her.

After about ten minutes of speaking the old guy called Ayla to come make a talk. She went to stand beside him and the body and told her tale. I was surprised when she got to the end and pointed to me, telling them my name, and then pointing out the dead Neanderthals.

Her actions made all the others look at me and they made noises of approval in my direction. That seemed to be the end of the talking. The old guy started wrapping things up.

He called two of the men to come over and had them place the body, with its spear, into the hole. One of the women lay a decorated skin of some sort over the body's face then and everyone started filling in the hole, being careful not to dislodge the skin over his face.

Twenty minutes later it was all over but the singing and slow walking, and I guess we'd even covered their version of it. The grave was filled in and several large rocks were put over it.

Everyone was just sort of standing around and all but me were talking in quiet tones. It looked a hell of a lot like people at the grave site after a funeral to me. A couple of them were ambling off by now and I figured we were pretty much done.

I hadn't counted on all the possible consequences of firing my cannon here and now. I learned later that the thunder I made with the Marlin had brought Ayla's friends and family. None of us had realized it would bring the dead Neanderthals' friends and family too.

When they started yelling and screaming from three hundred yards away we noticed them. They came running when they saw us, and there were probably about thirty of them. The males in the bunch were in the lead and the females held back. My count was ten men with spears.

I'd reloaded my Marlin after the earlier shooting, but still it only held six in the magazine and the one up the spout. I didn't have time to wait for a bunch of arguing before shooting since my main advantage was distance. A rifle isn't that much more effective at spear jabbing range.

While the burial party was getting itself pumped up for what would surely be a fight to the death I shouldered the Marlin and got everyone's attention about the time the attackers were within a hundred yards. I picked off six of them and then reloaded, fast. When I shouldered the Marlin again the four men left alive were not racing toward us any longer.

They had thrown down their spears and were standing in place. What the hell, I walked toward them and I guess it was the right thing to do since all the others followed me. By the time we got there I was really confused.

When we reached them there was no arguing and there didn't seem to be any hard words. The intended battle was obviously over since none of the Neanderthals approached any of their weapons. An older Neanderthal woman and a younger one were trying to tend to the wounded. When the healing woman of the Cro-Magnons reached the scene she started helping and Ayla went too. I just watched. I was going to make sure no hard feelings caused more than one more death.

Three of the men had no hope. I'd made sure my first three shots were lethal. I'll admit I slacked off as they got closer and I could pick my spots more easily. Killing men was a new thing and believe me it wasn't any fun.

I gave the men a close look where they lay and the three I hadn't killed right off the bat looked like they might live over it. Two had broken legs below the knee and the other had a wound in his side. I knew it was going to be chancy for the two with leg wounds to ever walk again, but the one with the stomach wound seemed to be in the best shape. The bullet had gone through and it hadn't been in his abdomen. It was more like a flesh wound along his side. It was doing a lot of bleeding though.

I shook off my daze after the first aid was about done. The Neanderthals were making motions like they were about to pick up the living wounded and carry them off.

"If y'all'll hang on a minute I'll show you something to carry them easier," I said, and it was a show stopper even though I knew they didn't understand.

Ayla was back standing beside me again, though I didn't understand why she stayed so close to me most of the time. She had helped tend to the man with the flesh wound, but had come back to stand by me as soon as they finished with him.

I jacked the round out of the Marlin's chamber and let down the hammer, then handed the rifle to her to hold. It caused a little talk, but she didn't comment. I called to Jorka and motioned with my head for him to come with me.

We walked to a small wooded area, maybe fifty feet, and I used my hatchet to cut six travois poles and about eighteen smaller ones for cross pieces. He helped me carry them back to the crowd after I'd limbed them clean.

It took about thirty minutes to assemble the three travois and then I borrowed one of the furs they were going to use to carry the wounded men with and spread it over one of the travois. With a little nonsense talk and a lot of hand waving I made them understand how to use the travois. They figured the rest out quickly once I got one loaded and gave a short demo.

The Neanderthals weren't the only ones who watched me closely. I could almost see the wheels turning in everyone's heads while I worked what must have been magic to them. As soon as I stopped my show and tell Ayla was right there to hand me my Marlin.

Apparently my demonstration changed the Neanderthal's attitude somewhat. I wasn't their favorite fellow by any means, but four of the men headed back to the small bunch of trees to try and copy my trick. Everyone stayed pretty much in place while they built five more travois. I figured they were now intending to carry their dead away too.

When all the travois were built and all the bodies loaded Jorka came to me and made me understand he wanted me to come with him. He led me over to meet the oldest Neanderthal man, obviously the leader.

It was more pointing and telling each other our names. We all did it even though I was sure Chabagwa and Jorka were already acquainted.

After these last niceties were finished I was ready to head home. I didn't know how to say goodbye so I tried to sneak off like the Lone Ranger always had. There was no chance of getting it done though, because Ayla stayed right with me.

I turned to face her after I was sure she wasn't going to say anything, but was equally sure she was going with me now. I raised my shoulders in what I hoped was a universal Huh?

She started talking and then waving her hands and finally I understood manners required me to come with them. What the hell, I might as well find out where they lived. I was even more curious when I noticed Jorka and Chabagwa were still talking and both of them pointed my way more than once.

I figured it was about an hour until noon when we headed toward wherever we were going. Ayla stayed right by my warm side for the whole trip. It was probably six miles or a little more when we came to a fairly large camp.

All morning, since Jorka and his bunch joined us, I had been assuming the whole clan was present. I was wrong. There were more than twice as many in the camp when we reached it. I was subjected to dozens of introductions. The only names I made sure to remember were Zolta and Dagarth.

Zolta was the healing woman who had been with Jorka and his group and Dagarth was the camp's leader. He hadn't been along for the morning's activity, but there was no doubt he'd sent the others to us. He was a little over six feet and probably weighed two hundred. I figured his age at around thirty-five or so.

Zolta might have been thirty, but I figured mid twenties probably. She was a good-looking woman and her body was athletic and attractive. Checking out the wheels of these women was easy because of their clothes. The weather was still warm and they weren't bundled up in any fashion.

The women wore a sort of skin blouse I guess you'd call it. There were straps to hold it up and it had large loops to close with bone buttons down the front. To me it was an ideal garment since the buttons were few and a nice show of titty was there for the looking. Zolta had a nice pair too - in fact they were remarkable. Somehow I'd never envisioned Cro-Magnon women having Large D cup breasts. I especially hadn't figured them to have such firm examples.

Dagarth carried more muscle than most of the men and his six foot or so height looked to be tops. Maybe it was why he was the leader, but I didn't really have a clue. He seemed nice enough to me and I could tell during the intro he was welcoming me to the camp.

Soon enough these pleasantries were over and I was left to my own devices, except for Ayla. She seemed to take over guide duty for me now and she showed me over to a sort of stool beside a fairly nice hut.

Ayla's attention was not annoying, but I did wonder how I'd earned it. Maybe she was being nice because I'd saved her bacon. Whatever I'd done I hoped I could be of further service.

Ayla was probably the tallest woman or girl I'd seen in this camp, or whatever they called their group. She was five eight if she was an inch and she reminded me of a Lucky Strike cigarette. Ayla was round and firm and fully packed. Her titties weren't the equals of Zolta's but she was much younger and probably had room for more later. As it was they were a good C cup and jiggled wonderfully even though they were obviously firm.

Thanks to her short skirt-type garment her fantastic legs were on display and now the excitement was over she was giving me a boner. It grew since I couldn't keep my eyes off her.

The blouse type skin she was wearing was skimpier than Zolta's had been and Ayla was showing a lot of her perfect abdomen above the skirt and below those titties. I kept thinking the skirt hanging on her hips was surely barely covering the top of her beaver.

She started fooling with the fire to stir it back up and I nearly lost my load. She didn't kneel to tend to it - she bent at the waist. She was facing away from me and in seconds I was perusing her nether lips between the backs of her thighs. Her carpet matched the blonde drapes exactly and I had to strain to keep my jaw off the ground and my tongue from hanging out.